So I just moved into a new apartment with my cats, who are 2 and 3 years old. They used the litter box in my old house, but when I moved I'm not sure what changed. To add to the story, I lived in my new apartment for 3 days before I went on a small deployment(active duty) for roughly 2 months, I had a friend looking after them while I was gone. When I came back my apartment was wrecked, they pooped and peed all over my bed and the litter box was a mess. Anyways, I completely changed our all the litter so it's all new. But the cats still don't want to pee in it. Does anyone have any explanations? Any advice would really help. Thank you.
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Help: Cat urinating outside litter box
- Thread starter jessicapaws
- Start Date
Hi, and welcome to TCS 
It sounds to me as though there are several factors at work here. Firstly, stress. Just moving house is highly stressful for cats - their house is their whole world, and they're much more scent oriented than us humans, making new places even more unsettling. Add to that the major change in routine with your being on deployment, and that alone would be enough to explain the problems. In this case, however, it doesn't stop there. From what you've said, it sounds like your friend seriously neglected their litterbox. Cats are fastidious creatures, and a dirty box is more than enough to put them off using it.
They chose your bed because it smells so strongly of you. They're most likely feeling incredibly territorially insecure in their new home, so are going on your bed to meld their scent with yours in the strongest possible way. It's a desperate attempt to reassure themselves that this really is their home and that they belong there.
How to fix things? First off, get a blacklight and go around the apartment with it, thoroughly cleaning any pee/poop residue that shows up with an enzymatic cleaner - nothing else will remove the smell to their sensitive noses, and any hint of scent remaining is like a little signpost saying 'the toilet is here'. Your bedding will need thorough laundering and treating with enzymatic cleaner too. Multiple treatments will probably be necessary in order to completely remove the smell/residue...in fact, you may find that you have to throw out your mattress, duvet and pillows and start fresh - especially if they've been heavily soiled. Once all this is done, it might be an idea to cover your bed with a plastic sheet/tarpaulin for a while, just until you've finished retraining them with the litterbox.
Dr Elsy's Cat Attract litter can be invaluable when retraining cats to use a litterbox. It's not the cheapest, but is definitely worth it in the long run. If it were me, I would also relocate the litterbox so you can build fresh, positive associations with using it again. Multiple litterboxes are always a good move too - ideally, you want at least one box per cat plus one extra, scattered around in different areas of the home.
The following articles should help you, as well as giving more in depth details:-[article="32366"][/article][article="32424"][/article][article="29728"][/article][article="29680"][/article][article="32804"][/article][article="30274"][/article][article="30307"][/article][article="30316"][/article][article="32758"][/article][article="29678"][/article][article="32493"][/article][article="32341"][/article][article="0"][/article][article="32656"][/article]
It sounds to me as though there are several factors at work here. Firstly, stress. Just moving house is highly stressful for cats - their house is their whole world, and they're much more scent oriented than us humans, making new places even more unsettling. Add to that the major change in routine with your being on deployment, and that alone would be enough to explain the problems. In this case, however, it doesn't stop there. From what you've said, it sounds like your friend seriously neglected their litterbox. Cats are fastidious creatures, and a dirty box is more than enough to put them off using it.
They chose your bed because it smells so strongly of you. They're most likely feeling incredibly territorially insecure in their new home, so are going on your bed to meld their scent with yours in the strongest possible way. It's a desperate attempt to reassure themselves that this really is their home and that they belong there.
How to fix things? First off, get a blacklight and go around the apartment with it, thoroughly cleaning any pee/poop residue that shows up with an enzymatic cleaner - nothing else will remove the smell to their sensitive noses, and any hint of scent remaining is like a little signpost saying 'the toilet is here'. Your bedding will need thorough laundering and treating with enzymatic cleaner too. Multiple treatments will probably be necessary in order to completely remove the smell/residue...in fact, you may find that you have to throw out your mattress, duvet and pillows and start fresh - especially if they've been heavily soiled. Once all this is done, it might be an idea to cover your bed with a plastic sheet/tarpaulin for a while, just until you've finished retraining them with the litterbox.
Dr Elsy's Cat Attract litter can be invaluable when retraining cats to use a litterbox. It's not the cheapest, but is definitely worth it in the long run. If it were me, I would also relocate the litterbox so you can build fresh, positive associations with using it again. Multiple litterboxes are always a good move too - ideally, you want at least one box per cat plus one extra, scattered around in different areas of the home.
The following articles should help you, as well as giving more in depth details:-[article="32366"][/article][article="32424"][/article][article="29728"][/article][article="29680"][/article][article="32804"][/article][article="30274"][/article][article="30307"][/article][article="30316"][/article][article="32758"][/article][article="29678"][/article][article="32493"][/article][article="32341"][/article][article="0"][/article][article="32656"][/article]
